CCR

After all the hard work and effort, its finally over! Over and out. 

Collaborators: Mariana Ontiveros 

Vanessa Chiquito, xoxo

Film Opening!

After all the blood, sweat and tears, it is finally here!!! I hope you enjoy our little film opening What's Next?

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6iu6Qsekp0AZXJYX1lXbFdvS00

Editing is complete!

Hello! 

I am proud to announce that the editing process is DONE! D-O-N-E. 

Honestly, I don't know how we managed to finish it. All I can say is that a LOT of hard work and determination went into this film opening. We edited until we couldn't edit no more and everything looked just like we planned to. Here are a a couple of pictures from the editing process. Our film is called "What's Next?" and I'm excited to show it to you guys!

Now on to my final posts! 

Bye Bye now!

Thank God for Royalty Free Music!

Good News! 

Today, while Mariana and I were editing we were having a crisis with the sound element of our film opening. We asked a singer if we could use their song for part of the opening, but they never responded back! 

So as we were struggling, Mariana's sister told us to go AudioJungle to find royalty free music. We followed her advice and went on the website looking for a song to save the day. After hours of searching, we came across a song that had a homey and latin vibe to it. So, we purchased it and implemented it into our film opening! 

Stay tuned in for more!

Late Friday Night Editing

Where do I start?! Today was full of editing, editing and more editing. We worked on editing from 5pm to 10:30pm. WHAT A DAY. Here's a picture of Mariana and I editing. She looks so happy and alive, but the truth is, she was drinking coffee to say awake. Honestly, we were both falling asleep but we made it!

We aren't completely done, yet we are off to a very good start. We plan on editing for the next two days non-stop due to our change of plans. We aim to be 100% done by Sunday, that way we can finish the rest of the project on time to enjoy our Spring Break. 

At first, Mariana and I were kind of lost with what to do, but we started looking through our footage and deleting footage we knew wouldn't work. That way we could lay all of the useful footage down on iMovie and start the editing process. It seemed a little overwhelming because all of our footage reached like nine minutes and we had a lot of the same remakes of some of the footage. But, we took a deep breath and started with the beginning of the opening and worked our way to the end. Today we finished off with six minutes, but tomorrow we are meeting up in the morning and finishing it off. I have a lot of faith that it will turn out fine because of all our determination this past week. 

I will post some pictures of the editing process tomorrow and Sunday. I just wanted to tell you guys a little recap of how today went!

Stay tuned! 

Post Filming Feedback!

Hello again! 

Today was an extremely stressful day, thank god it's almost over. Between our actress's busy schedule and filming, but I can finally say the filming process is done! 

I will add some pictures and short clips of today (including bloppers). Enjoy!

Actor Probs

At the beginning of this project, our teacher told us that without a doubt we were going to endure many obstacles with our projects. I tried not to think about it too much, but she was right. Just when everything is going great something inevitably happens...

Sadly, the actress we used for the previous video can't film today, but I called one of my close friends and she said she was willing to do it. 

I introduce to you Rebeca Sanchez! 

Even though our other actress couldn't, Rebeca still fits our the role perfectly. She's seventeen and hispanic, from Venezuela. She's also tall and very pretty, so it all fit perfectly!

Well, now off to filming!!

Camera Research

Hi guys, 

So, today I had my SAT and I really don't feel like doing anything else besides sleeping, but I must keep you guys up to date on what's happening! 

I never really mentioned what we were going to use to film. The camera we are using isn't the most professional one, but it is good and our only option besides our iPhones. 

We are using the Nikon COOLPIX P500. Since it's my dad's I haven't really gotten the chance to use it that much besides for taking family pictures. 

With that being said, I have no idea what features it has for filming. Although, this doesn't pertain only to this camera, I did some research on how to do shallow focus. It's something that Mariana and are considering of trying for parts of the opening. From reading this article, it seems pretty simple, I tried playing around with the aperture and zooming in. I failed a couple of times, so I'm not sure if its a good idea to do it for the opening. 

Tomorrow we are finally filming!!! I am so happy, yet nervous. I hope everything goes as planned. We have our actress, location, camera and determination to get this done. Wish us luck!:)




Hyman, I. (2016, December 08). Depth of Field in Your Video: Why and How to Use It. Retrieved April 05, 2017, from http://www.izzyvideo.com/depth-of-field/

Hicks, L. (2013, August 16). FPT: How to Create Depth of Field. Retrieved April 05, 2017, from http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/howto/fpt-how-to-create-depth-of-field/

Filming Research

Little recap on today! 
So, Mariana found an interesting slideshare on filming techniques of the Coming-of-Age sub-genre. Although we already made our storyboard, we still looked through it just in case it could help us. 

The slideshare mainly emphasized that Coming-of-Age films are 'emotion driven' and the characters emotions are constantly present and remain the film in focus. Since the process of coming-of-Age is a personal, psychological, and moral growth and is achieved my experiencing different emotions, it is our job to make sure that those emotions are the focal point. In order to achieve that, we must make good use of the actor's performance and specific camera angles and movement. 

Shots
What really appealed to us about the slideshare was the information on close ups. Knowing that in most films close ups are used to identify important characters and show a persons emotion. It mentioned that they are very important in Coming-of-Age films because the personal growth and change is emphasized through the emotions the person has. 


Here are some screenshots of the examples the person gave: 

Seeing this slide on the Two-Shot made us think that it could possibly help us in showing Daniela's relationship with her mother. Since they can demonstrate complicated home life relationships.

Editing
It mentioned the use of cutaways and push ins to show emotion and emotional response. There is a a shot at the end where we were planning on using a push in for that same reason. 







Tune in tomorrow! Xoxo



Creighton, B. (2012, December 06). Camera Angles/Movements and Editing. Retrieved April 04, 2017, from https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/beccacreighton7/camera-anglesmovements-and-editing

Set Up

Hey there!

Today, Mariana and I set up Daniela's room aka Mariana's room for the film opening. Sadly, we weren't able to film because of the time, but at least we got something done. I am warning you, this post is going to be very, very long. I am a very visual person and thought it would be helpful to actually show you guys the room and it's details. 

Like I said in one of previous posts, we focused on displaying her passion and part of the conflict through her room. I found this article, that mentions that bedroom movies are a great way of finding out all sorts of details about the character without being verbally told. Since our main character dreams of becoming a fashion model, we thought it would be a great idea to put images of fashion models and one or two actresses on the walls. Why other celebrities? Well because sometimes celebrities like actresses or singers model for big high-end fashion companies, so we wanted to add some familiar faces. On the walls, we taped magazine pages from Seventeen, Vogue, Teen Vogue, and Elle. We mostly focused on looking for images of very popular contemporary models like Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid Cara Delevingne, so our audience could recognize and relate to her. We also put an Alexander Wang fashion show pass and a sticky note saying to tune in to the Fendi Fashion Show. So, that shows our audience that sees she is trying to balance her life between her dream and real life which is something that they can relate to. Not only are we trying to portray her passion, but her socio-economic status. She has an average-sized bedroom that gives off a homey feeling. She works at a McDonalds, owns an inexpensive car, and lives in an average-size house. The audience can infer that she is a student because of the desk and books. As well as, the college pamphlets and SAT score on the mirror. 

Well, enough talk for today, I am going to leave you to getting scrolling and see our creation! 

Daniela's room's entrance.

Behind the door.
There's Kendall and Gigi! 

Images of Irina Shayk, Pyper America Smith, Cara Delevingne, etc. 

Images portraying different popular fashion brands and familiar faces like Emma Watson and Doutzen Kores. 

More models. 

The mirror is covered with images of Daniela and her friends (I'm in pictures hehe). As well as, sticky notes, SAT score, and magazine clippings. 

Fashion magazines and college pamphlets. 

Daniela's savings for the Wilhelmina New York Open Call.

Frances, L. (2012, July 06). Seven Awesome Bedrooms In Movies. Retrieved April 03, 2017, from http://unrealitymag.com/movies/seven-awesome-bedrooms-in-movies/

Props and More!

Our goal in this new film opening is to allude to the conflict (her parent's disapproval of her dream and wanting her to go to college) and introduce main character's passion (modeling). I don't want to give the whole opening away, but we are focusing a lot on mise-en-scene. The opening will take place in Daniela's house specifically her room. In her room, there will be pictures of models on the walls and fashion magazines depicting her passion. Then, there will be college pamphlets and SAT reminders showing her parent's pressure on her to go to college.


I feel like this idea will appeal to our audience because teens/young adults are at that stage in their life when they have to decide what they want to be. We especially think the teens will be able to relate to Daniela because high school is a tough time for most teens. Going through adolescence, figuring yourself out, and planning the future, it can be challenging. There are parents who put pressure on their kids to be what they want them to be and ignoring their dream. Or, parents who will support their kid no matter if they want to be a cashier their whole life. Here we want to discuss that because its something that is definitely does happen. My mother wanted to be a ballerina and my grandmother made her become a dentist. 

Anyways... here are some of the props we made up and will use in our opening!

Mariana and I will finish setting up the room tomorrow. We wanted to film tomorrow and get it over with, but our actress can't. 

It's been a bumpy road, but I am sure everything will be alright! 

New Storyboard

Hello, Good Evening!

Well I am happy to announce that Mariana and I met up today and have our whole storyboard and props set. I know we have very, very little time left, but we are doing our best.  We met for like four hours and really covered EVERYTHING. We definitely learned from our past experience and do not have anymore time to waste. 

Here is our storyboard:

It is certainly not the prettiest or easiest thing to look at, but Mariana and I understand it 100%. We made sure we had a variety of shots and that the story will flow. We went around my house as we made the storyboard to visualize each shot.  Although we are using her house to film, the structures of our houses are very similar. Her mother also sent us pictures of her room so we can visualize where we could put the props. I'm glad we put a lot of our time into this storyboard and making the props, so we don't waste so much time when filming. 

For the next couple of days we will be setting up the room with props and making sure everything is ready for filming.

My next post will be on the props, so tune in tomorrow! 

Bad, But Good News...

Dear blog, 

I have some good and bad news today. After, Mariana and I met today and saw the footage to edit we realized that we couldn't create a film opening with what we had of footage. The videos did not make sense and they did not come out how we had in mind. Since we were at a public place, it was difficult to control the lighting and the security guards would get annoying with us filming. So, with the little footage we had, nothing really made sense. We discussed about going back to Brickell to film to make it better, but we realized that we were just going to waste time and needed to think of something better. After thinking about the mess we made, and how we could fix it within one week and like two days. I thought about switching the whole idea up to something we had more control over for filming. Where we could film in a house and manage the lighting and the props to our benefit. We are still sticking to the idea of a Coming-of-Age film, focusing on the main character's socio-economic status and making her hispanic. So... this is where the good news comes in! After ten minutes of hard thinking and panicking in class, we came up with the idea of an eighteen year, Hispanic middle-class girl, Daniela Gonzalez, who lives in a suburb and dreams of being a model. The only thing is that her parents don't accept her dream because they believe she should go to college, be a doctor and make a real living out of something after all the hard work they went through to give her everything she has. They believe her dream is a nonsensical desire and she needs to put her feet on the ground. She works at a McDonalds and is saving up for an open call in New York. So, we want to show how this very passionate girl fights for her passion despite the circumstances. 

I am actually glad that we changed our idea because we didn't even have our past idea thought out very well. We kind of took the first idea we thought would be successful since we worried about finishing in five weeks, but it ended up hurting us instead. We definitely learned a lot with this and are willing to do whatever it takes to make it better.  Before, we were depending solely on the costume design and the location setting rather than actually considering the rest of the visual techniques we learned in class to convey our story. We don't have much time left, but well life is all about learning right?

Mariana and I need to finish the new storyboard and I will post it on Saturday. 

Wish us luck... 

2 More Weeks... Yikes!

Today is Sunday, March 26, 2017 and there is officially two more weeks left until our Film Opening and Creative Critical Reflection are due! 

But, the good news is that Mariana and I have everything undercover... we think. 

What we plan on doing is to start the editing process on Tuesday since we see each other in class. I already moved all of the footage from the camera onto my computer to have everything set for Tuesday. We will start putting the footage together and begin to organize what we have. Later that day, right after school, we plan to film the last and final part of the film opening and the voiceover. I mean this is what we have planned, but we need to consult with Dani and see if she can film on Tuesday and if not Wednesday. 

On Tuesday or Wednesday what we plan filming is our main character getting ready to go to work at a fast-food restaurant. At the beginning of the film opening, the audience will see what her life was like before her father was arrested as she explains it in the voiceover. Here she's happy, living her life as she casually strolls through a fancy mall in Brickell. Towards the end of the film opening, the audience will see the contrast as she gets ready to go to work and she's in a plain perhaps rundown looking bathroom. We still need to establish our location for this part of the film, but we have our costume ready! Luckily, I have a friend who works at McDonalds and we asked him if we could borrow his McDonalds uniform and he said yes so we are set! 

For the rest of the week, we will be focused on editing, editing and editing. Hopefully, (fingers crossed) the editing process will be 100% done by Saturday so Mariana and I can start our Creative Critical Reflections. 

See you next week. Ciao!

Oh my god Archives. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2017, from http://www.reactiongifs.com/tag/oh-my-god/

Filming Day Uno

Hey guys! Today was a very, very long day of filming and I pretty much just got home. I am super tired, but anyways... It was a great day and we got a handful of footage! I am so excited to share it with you guys, but with what's left of today I sort of want to reflect on how it went. Although it was great, we did endure some obstacles, but we quickly overcame them. 
I want to start off with what we did as soon as we got to the Brickell City Center. 

First, we walked around the area because none of us had ever been there before, so we felt and looked like tourists. We had backpacks and purses and a camera on us so I am pretty convinced we looked like tourists. As we walked around, we looked for ideal spots for filming and a bathroom so Dani could change to start filming. We decided to go with the green top outfit because it looked the best out of both. Presto! We were ready to start filming. 

We still walked around to see where we could start and realized that we were lost so we looked at the list of shots we made to make sure we had a backbone of what to do. The first one on our list was to do an establishing shot of the Brickell area, so we went to the edges of the mall and shot that. After that, we wasted a little time deciding on what to do next that would show our character in her everyday life. Like we had talked about it before we decided it would be perfect to go to a little cafe where she would go and drink coffee on one of her shopping days. We went to a little cafe called Santa Fe and filmed our main character drinking coffee and catching up with her friends on her phone. We focused a lot on body language because we are planning on doing a voice over of her explaining her life before and after he father's situation. Also, because we thought it was a good way for the audience to really capture the essence of her personality. Anyways... it was a little embarrassing filming there because everyone was watching us and we got the cafe staff involved, but it was fun. 

Then, we went to go film some more around the mall and some stores. We took some shots of Dani at Saks Fifth Avenue looking at the clothes and of her strolling by other expensive stores. As well as, shots of some of the store fronts like we got inspired by in From Prada to Nada. We still focused on the body language since she was not going to be verbally speaking. Then, we continued to film on the streets around the mall for a little while to see what else we could add in our film opening that would be useful. After that, our only issue was seeing how we were going to get home, but we figured it out and now I am ready to go to sleep. 

Overall it was fun and nice seeing everything we got done. I won't say anything else, but here are some pictures of today! 

Brickell City Centre | Style Has No Labels | Miami FL. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2017, from http://brickellcitycentre.com/whats-here/directory/santa-fe

Filming Preparations

Hey everyone! I'm so glad this weekend is a long weekend, we are taking advantage of it to film. Today we are filming at the Brickell City Centre right after school. We are extremely grateful that our actress was willing and able to film today because it was hard finding someone who wasn't busy. So Daniela if you are reading this thank you once again! 

Brickell City Centre

The reason we are filming at the Brickell City Centre is because it is a new icon of luxury, fashion and everything high-class here in South Florida. From a variation of high end fashion stores like Giuseppe Zanotti and Ted Baker to fine-dining like Sugar and Le Roy Rene. The architecture is freshly modern and abstract exemplifying opulence.  Our main character is a product of living in a world so luxurious and expensive, so we thought it would be perfect to film in this new mall that represents exactly that. 













Costume Design

Candice Swanepoel

For the costume design we looked at Gossip Girl and models street-style outfits to get inspiration for our main character. Since the main characters in Gossip Girl are of a high socio-economic status we thought it would be perfect to look at. The different models outfits helped to create something trendy and more causal than what the Gossip Girl cast usually wears. We want something that looks nice, but at the same time is trendy and casual. 

Blake Lively 

So, based on our research we have two outfits we are taking with us to see which ones will work better. We are trying to pay attention to the details like a nice watch, purse and big sunglasses. The outfit can be simple, but with nice accessories that exemplify wealth and luxury it aids in achieving our goal. 

If you notice we have a trend of gold going on in our outfit to symbolize wealth and extravagance. Yes, they are very simple, but we don't want to make her seem like a stereotype. Our goal is to make her seem like a real person of her socio-economic status. 


We are very excited to film and meet the new Brickell City Center. Tune in later to see the aftermath of Filming Day 1!





Bourn, J. (2016, June 03). Meaning of The Color Gold |. Retrieved March 23, 2017, from http://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-gold/

Brickell City Centre. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2017, from http://arquitectonica.com/blog/portfolio/hospitality/brickell-city-centre/

JLL Florida. (2016, September 09). 5 Trends Changing Florida's Retail Market - JLL Florida. Retrieved March 23, 2017, from http://floridablog.jll.com/2016/09/09/5-trends-changing-floridas-retail-market/

Light, M. (2016, November 05). Take a Peek Inside the Newly-Opened Brickell City Centre. Retrieved March 23, 2017, from http://www.miamiluxuryhomes.com/blog/take-a-peek-inside-the-newly-opened-brickell-city-centre/

Pinterest. (n.d.). Models Off Duty. Retrieved March 23, 2017, from https://www.pinterest.com/explore/models-off-duty/

Pinterest. (n.d.). Blake Lively Outfits. Retrieved March 23, 2017, from https://www.pinterest.com/explore/blake-lively-outfits/

Pinterest. (n.d.). Gossip Girl Style. Retrieved March 23, 2017, from https://www.pinterest.com/explore/gossip-girl-style/